THE POLISH TEXTILE AND MAN — MADE FIBRES INDUSTRY

Alojzy Urbanowski, Institute of Chemical Fibres, Lódz, Poland

GENERAL INFORMATION

In my presentation during the last EATP Spring Conference in Praia de Rocha Portugal some information on Poland’s economy were included.

I would like now to complement that information with data relating to 1999 and 2000.

Fig. 1. Poland’s Annual GDP Growth 1991 - 1999 (as % to previous year).

Fig. 2. Poland’s Industrial Output 1991 - 1999 (as % to previous year).

Fig. 3. Inflation 1991 - 1999 (as % to previous year).

Unemployment rose from 11 % in 1998 to 13 % in 1999.

GDP per capita was 8430 $ (march 2000)
Trade balance was -14.2 bln $ (march 2000)
Gross foreign debt was 31.6 bln $ (march 2000)

Foreign direct investment is presented in Table 1.

TABLE 1. FDI in Poland - country breakdown for 1998 (cumulative).
No Country of origin Investment

in US $ bln.		 Number of investors
1. Germany
5.1
163
2. USA
4.9
112
3. France
2.3
60
4. Italy
2.0
64
5. Great Britain
1.9
28
6. Netherlands
1.9
42
7. International
1.8
18
8. Korea
1.4
4
9. Russia
1.0
1
10. Austria
0.8
31
TOTAL FDI IN POLAND
30.7 for 1998
TOTAL FDI IN POLAND
37.0 for march 2000

Poland is seen as an attractive destination for foreign investors. The American Consulting company AT Kearney has recently published a report concerning world wide foreign investment confidence. The report contained the graph of Figure 4.

Fig. 4. Foreign investors’ confidence index, January 2000
On a scale of 0 (no confidence) to 2

World - wide interest in Poland is quickly increasing. The country moved last year from eight to fifth place among the countries most attractive for FDI. Central and Eastern Europe is still seen as a high risk region but it does better than other regions in terms of profits actually achieved.

POLAND’S TEXTILE INDUSTRY

The light industry is divided in three main segments:

  • Textile industry which is in very bad condition,
  • Garment industry - doing not to bad,
  • Leather industry - in rather poor condition

Garment makers in Poland enjoyed in the last years an extensive cooperation with Western Europe mostly in the framework of commission sewing. The cooperation is recently turning step - wise toward a license formula.

The leather industry stands under increasing pressure of massive imports.

The textile industry played an important role in Poland is economy, which is illustrated with following data.

Table 2. The role of the light industry in Poland’s overall industry.
Overall Industry
Textile industry
%
Number of employees
2 479 000
280 000*
11.3
Sales (mln PLN)
322 000
13 020
4.0
Exports (mln $)
20 192
3 014
14.9
Imports (mln $)
24 627
2 610
10.6
* Includes enterprises with employees number over 50. 140 000 more people are employed in small enterprises (below 50 employees).

Table 3 and 4 present the foreign exchange in fibrous materials and products.

Table 3. Imports of fibrous materials and products
(Import value in mln $).
1996
1997
1998
Total*
3 109
3 233
3 606
From former Soviet Union
231
225
202
From European Union
2 204
2 255
2 487
Asia
318
372
499
* Includes chemical fibres

Table 4. Exports of fibrous materials and products
(Export value in mln $).
1996
1997
1998
Total*
2 934
2 880
3 145
Garments
1 928
2 175
2 331
to former Soviet Union
155
206
194
to European Union
2 574
2 498
2 758
* Includes chemical fibres

Exports are higher than imports with prevailing garments. Region - wise the European Union is most important.

In 1989 and the first 90ties Poland’s economy and industry suffered a drastic decrease. The recession in textile industry was deeper than in the remaining industry reaching 60% of the original output. In 1992 the industry begun to recover, however, much slower than the downswing in 1990/91.

Disappointingly the production figures for 1998 and 1999 again show a negative trend which is illustrated with Figure 5.

Fig. 5. Output of Poland’s Textile and Garment Industry.

THE MAN — MADE FIBER INDUSTRY

The consumption of fibrous raw materials in Poland in the two last decades reflects distinctly the enormous changes in the textile industry, overall economy and market conditions which occurred at the end of the 80ties and in the 90ties. The mill consumption of both natural and man-made fibres in Poland over a longer period is presented in Figure Table 5.

Table 5. Poland’s mill consumption of both natural and man - made fibres in thousand tonnes.
1980
1995
1998
1999
Cellulosics
91.0
21.8
3.6
2.4
Synthetic total
165.2
102.6
79.8
74.1
PES
79.8
67.8
55.3
52.8
PA 6
72.8
34.5
24.5
21.3
PAN
12.6
0.3
0
0
GRAND TOTAL
256.2
124.4
83.4
76.5
* Without olefins.

The production of man - made fibres is presented in Table 6.

Table 6. Poland’s man-made fibre production*
(thousand tonnes).
1980
1995
1998
1999
Cellulosics
91.0
21.8
3.6
2.4
Synthetic total
165.2
102.6
79.8
74.1
PES
79.8
67.8
55.3
52.8
PA 6
72.8
34.5
24.5
21.3
PAN
12.6
0.3
0
0
GRAND TOTAL
256.2
124.4
83.4
76.5
* PP fibres not included.

Some capacities were shut down and will never resume production. From the eight man - made fibres plants in the 80ties only three remain now in operation. This is illustrated with Table 7.

Table 7. Man — made fibres plants in Poland*.
1980
Present situation
5 viscose plants 1 filament plant in operation 3000 t/year, sold to a Polish private company;
- 4 plants - closed.
1 acrylic plant - shut down
1 PES plant "ELANA" - in operation, Polish capital,

23 000 t/y - textile filament

32 000 t/y - staple
1 PA6 plant - in operation, belonging to RHODIA

(Italian - French capital);

1 500 t/y - industrial

24 000 t/y - textile filament

3 000 t/y - staple
* PP fibres not included

Imports, exports domestic production and mill consumption in 1998 are presented in Table 8.

Table 8. Imports, exports and domestic product of man-made fibres in 1998 (thousand tonnes)
Filaments
Staple
Total
1. Imports
86.7
117.8
204.5
2. Exports
28.2
26.3
54.5
3. Domestic production
48.7
34.7
83.4
4. Mill consumption (1-2+3)
107.2
126.2
233.4

 

POLYPROPYLENE (PP) FIBRES

In the preceding section PP fibres are not included. The production of PP fibres and the market were presented in the March issue of Polynews in the article "Polypropylene Fibres in Poland". Some more information was contained in my presentation at EATP Spring Conference in May 1999 in Praia da Rocha, Portugal: "The Polish PP Market and Business Opportunities".

The production of various PP fibres in Poland in 1998 and 1999 is given in Table 9.

Table 9. Production of PP fibres in Poland.
1998
1999
Film fibres*
15 500
14 800
BCF
1 600
1 400
Multifilament technical
1 350
1 720
Multifilament
0
190
Staple
3 470
3 760
Spun-bonds
600
1 960
TOTAL
22 520
23 830
* Fibres made by producers of twines, ropes, sacks, etc. for their internal use not included.

Contrary to other man - made fibres the product of PP is showing a rather increasing tendency particularly is multifilaments and spun bonds.

The production is being developed at small private companies. No major producer of PP fibres exists in Poland. The market is developing. Technical textiles, the main consumer of PP fibres is the only sector in the textile industry with a positive development.

This article is published on NF New Fibres, see the contents.